


What Comes Next

by anniebibananie



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Canon, F/M, Post Great War, Tumblr Prompt, post 8x03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-16 06:52:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18686350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anniebibananie/pseuds/anniebibananie
Summary: “As for my plans…” he petered off, eyes trailing over the freckles of her face and wondering what it would be like to touch every single one with his lips until she saw the cosmos she held within her. “Wherever you’ll have me.”





	What Comes Next

Brienne found him silently as she often had the past few days. 

While people hadn’t been particularly friendly toward him before the Great War, now they slid past him without a thought to it. Who cared about the old Kingslayer after they had all stared death in the face? It was quiet, though, as people recovered from the horrors witnessed. It left a lot of silence in Jaime’s life, and he wasn’t all that sure how to fill it. Thankfully, there was Brienne.

He could only stand so many talks of the war steps against his sister, and frankly he could tell Daenerys felt nervous with him around, so he usually excused himself before tensions grew high. He stood on the top of Winterfell’s battlement, staring out at the landscape that they had lost so many men in days prior. 

Mostly, he hadn’t thought much past the battle. It had seemed stupid to think about what his life would be after when death had crept up on him for years. Though, in the rare moment he had let himself think beyond the dead coming for them, he could finally admit it was Brienne he thought on. 

What could bring the truth into blinding clarity for him if not surviving impossible odds? The hard part was simply speaking said truth aloud. 

“I’m surprised you’re still here,” she said now. There were bruises fleshed over her neck and peaking out from where her fabric didn’t pull up enough to cover near her collarbone. Her eyes didn’t meet his, though it was all he wished to see. What had he fought for if not to stare into those blue pools for as long as she could possibly let him? “You’ve completed your promise to fight for the living. Nothing holds you here any longer.” 

He scoffed, and he saw her tense at the sound. Of course something still held him here. “Are you trying to ask me what I plan to do now?” he asked. “Are you curious about my future?” 

She turned to eye him, and there was curiosity in her eyes and also something else. It seemed to him it might be a sort of longing—to know what rolled around in his head. These days, he wondered if she ever thought about how right it had felt to fight back to back, side by side, with the end of the world hanging over them. Jaime had fought plenty in his life, but it had never felt like  _that._

“I suppose,” Brienne said, the words crawling slowly out of her mouth, “I still fail to understand you, Ser Jaime. Since you showed up, I…” Her speech cut off with a groan, and her brows came together with frustration and an inability to put her feelings into words.

“Well,  _Ser Brienne_.” He watched as she tried to hide the smile on her lips, the title still bringing joy with every mention. He couldn’t deny he had used it more frequently just to toy out the sunshine in her. “I thought it was fairly obvious.” 

“Unfortunately, not to me.” Her body was taut as she shifted from foot to foot. He wished she could relax now, but it seemed to evade her. Or maybe he was what was bringing it out in her. “I don’t know if I understand this version of you.” 

“It’s the version you helped to make,” he said suddenly, watching her gaze grow surprised as she eyed him. He turned his body toward hers. “Maybe not make, exactly. You revealed it, though. I didn’t think I had good left in me, but then you reminded me of who I wanted but never thought I could be, and I was left with no other option than to work at being that person.” 

“I—” Her mouth shut, unable to find words.

“As for my plans…” he petered off, eyes trailing over the freckles of her face and wondering what it would be like to touch every single one with his lips until she saw the cosmos she held within her. “Wherever you’ll have me.” 

“Where I’ll have you?” she asked. 

“You are a thick woman sometimes, do you know that?” He ignored her grumble and stepped closer, and when he touched her face she stilled beneath his palms. It was not a tense halt though, more like calm waters. “I will take whatever you give me, but in the sake of full transparency I am quite in love with you.” 

“ _You_ love  _me_?” she asked. 

He nodded, waited, barely sucking his breath in and out. He wasn’t sure he had ever felt this vulnerable before, and she had seen him handless and unconscious in a bathtub. 

“I’ll have you,” she said in a whisper, her lips still searching for words, but he didn’t let her finish because  _gods_ if they waited any longer to say all that they needed to then they might be dead before they finally got there. 

She puffed out a small breath of surprise as his lips met hers, but she curved her body into his. He held her in his arms, and she reached out for him in return. It began clumsy, but it quickly smoothed out into slow, meaningful movements. Jaime felt more drunk than any glass of wine, more settled than any kiss before. For a moment, he was afraid she would disappear in his arms and prove there was no way this was real.

“I love you, too,” she said as they pulled back, as if it was a matter of pure fact and not a heartfelt confession. Somehow, that meant more to Jaime. As if the truth of those words— _I love you_ —were indisputable. “Once the next war is won we can figure out what comes next.”

“Babies, hopefully,” he said with a smirk, ignoring the roll of her eyes. “Lots of beautiful, blonde babes who can fight better than both of us. Do you think we will raise the first children parented by  _two_ knights?” 

Her cheeks were pink, and her eyes could barely meet his, and he took pity on her—he kissed her so she would not have to find the words to answer yet.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr: [anniebibananie](http://anniebibananie.tumblr.com/)


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